Hail in the United States

How dangerous are Hail events in the U.S.?

Recorded events are numerous relative to a more limited fatality total in this part of the catalog. NOAA reports 97,094 events, 9 fatalities, and 212 injuries from 2015 through 2025. PlainHazard calls 5-19 cumulative fatalities a moderate human-toll band. The label organizes this dataset and should not be read as an agency safety classification.

This hazard is recorded far more often than it proves fatal. Among the 44 hazard types with at least 100 recorded events it ranks #2 by frequency but only #41 by fatalities per event, at 9 deaths across 97,094 recorded events. Recorded damage averages $127.5K per event, so its cumulative toll is driven mainly by how routinely it occurs rather than by the severity of any one event.

Year-over-year trends reveal the event's volatility. The peak year on record was 2023, logging 11,761 events and $2.2B in property damage in a single calendar year. The most recent year in the dataset is 2025 with 9,205 events recorded. Across the full 11-year window, annual event counts reflect ordinary seasonal variability more than any clear multi-year trend.

Frequency and financial loss occupy a similar place in the NOAA catalog for this hazard. Its #2 event-count rank sits within four positions of its #6 combined-damage rank; the listed losses account for 4.7% of the catalog total. Human impact is a separate comparison: the hazard ranks #35 for fatalities and contributes 0.1% of recorded deaths.

The geographic footprint is uneven across the country. The three states absorbing the largest share of events are Texas (14,072 events, 0 fatalities), Kansas (8,265 events, 0 fatalities), Nebraska (6,079 events, 0 fatalities), largely a function of local terrain and settlement patterns rather than any single cause. At the other end, states such as Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands report far fewer events, a sign of lower exposure, though absence of a recorded event is not proof of zero risk.

NOAA entries are reports filed by local National Weather Service offices. Counts therefore reflect both observed weather and reporting practice; they do not measure unreported events, household exposure, or the probability of a future event at one address.